Many network environments allow a device to be addressed using two forms: a network address and a friendly name. In many networks, a Domain Name Service (DNS) may respond to a request containing the friendly name with the corresponding network address. In many cases, the friendly name may relate to a service or device that may be transferred from one hardware platform to another but may continue to provide the service. In such cases, the network address for the service may change from one device to another even though the friendly name may remain the same.
In some cloud computing environments, virtualized devices may be assigned friendly names as well as network addresses. In some applications, various virtualized devices may communicate directly with each other and may attempt to address each other using friendly names.